# Your Life since Joining TCoD



## Autumn

so earlier I was thinking about like how Life Happens over the course of the time i've been here. like i've seen other people's relationships start and end and various things happen and I started thinking I should make a topic where you write about how your life has gone since the time you joined TCoD. (This isn't necessarily a "how TCoD changed my life" thread as much as it is "how my life has changed since [x] date with [x] date coinciding with the day I joined TCoD.)

okay so I was 11 when I joined, I was in sixth grade, I had approximately six real life friends (only one of whom I am still in contact with). I was absolute shit at the trumpet and hadn't touched the piano. I had not yet realized my love of music and certainly didn't think I wanted to be a music therapist - at that point in time I'm fairly sure I wanted to be a scientist. Or maybe newspaper editor. I dunno. Since then, though, I've gone through thinking I wanted to be: a writer, a computer scientist, a video game playtester, a high school band director, a professional musician, a composer... and probably more I dun even know. I didn't listen to music, like, ever.

things that have occurred since then:
-got suicidal over being bullied in middle school
-got over that through therapy
-started reading Warriors
-started playing Phoenix Wright
-started high school
-joined marching band
-had a weird dude hit on me freshman year
-lost contact with most of my old friends
-made friends with the people who are now my best friends ever through marching band
-got my first crush
-realized I was bisexual (:V)
-got my first boyfriend
-went to college to major in music therapy
-broke up with said boyfriend because he was a stupid shitty bastard
-started dating VM

also other things happened but those are mostly "what has happened in the world since I joined TCoD" and if you're curious just look up anything that happened after 26 November 2005 haha.

anyway yeah. share your life experiences! :p


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## Jolty

>joined when i was 11
>in first year of middle school
>around when i first got social anxiety
>was fat
>BUT HAD A DECENT AMOUNT OF IRL FRIENDS as opposed to now
>was good at school
>was friends with most of the active members of the forum.
>made my own forum for my own pokemon site (wonderful decision)
>met really awesome guy who would be my best friend for years
>met first boyfriend
>started dating first boyfriend (mistake of the millennium)
>realised i was bisexual.
>was on internet/tcod a LOT because massively bullied in school
>fast forward a few years later, i am still on tcod and still friends with several people. not the ex boyfriend though. should have removed him from my life MUCH sooner
>not as good in school
>still bullied and hate myself etc etc
>got first girlfriend wow
>two years of really short relationships with several people blah blah
>starting to really lose my shit in school
>my favourite thing, drawing, gets kicked out of me eventually
>no longer friends with people on tcod. only one person really.
>i am 17 now and this is when i realise i am transsexual
>losing friends rapidly, doing even worse in school
>anxiety gets a lot worse
>holy shit i am an adult and i hate everything.
>but summer of 2010 was fucking incredible, just hanging out with my girlfriend and friends all the time
>go to uni, leave after one semester because i nearly fucking die from a combination of anxiety and malnourishment
>be on benefits for ages.
>get a shitty job that only lasts a week.
>try to apply for college courses (which i am overqualified for?) and apprenticeships (which all reject me either because i'm too nervous or because i'm transsexual)
>get second job, quit after one day because the anxiety is too fucking much
>finally tell my one remaining irl friend i am transsexual, he leaves me
>apply to uni because i need to do something.
>blah blah blah another year of barely doing anything
>get another job, this one unpaid. manage to see it through to the end.
>start uni again.
>doing better i guess. i'm living with a friend so that's something.
>MOTHER FUCK I FINALLY GET HORMONES???????????? only took 3 years
>i don't even know right now, i turned 21 yesterday and had a massive mental breakdown because we got new flatmates and i am terrified of people.
>i'm trying to do stuff to not be like this.
>my life isn't interesting. it never has been.

things that have been a constant source of happiness in all that time:
>pokemon
>

jesus that is ten years
i have been here for nearly 10 years. i think i became most things that my 11 year old self hated.


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## Tailsy

ten years in July for me, wow. but I don't really remember what I was like, other than I was just about to turn eleven and horribly, painfully shy and afraid of everything! I didn't have any friends either, really uwu 

but I have blossomed like a beautiful butterfly.


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## hopeandjoy

>11 seems to be a theme here
>suicidal from about 4 years of bullying
>no friends
>emo phase
>stopped being teased because i wasn't giving the same reaction
>stopped being suicidal
>TCoD vB #1 crash
>weeaboo phase
>yaoi fangirl phase
>became an atheist
>weeaboo and weeaboo related phases ended
>got into TV Tropes
>figured out that i was bisexual (that explained a lot)
>got into the magnet school for gifted kids
>someone linked to a vocaloid cover, so became vocaloid fan
>started getting into Megaman because of wiki walking
>high school woo?
>became a decent writer
>still no friends but at least people were friendly
>UTAU
>stopped drawing because i suck
>got into and out of Hetalia equally quickly
>the asshole moved to town. kinda had a nerd crush until he revealed he was some libertarian/neoconservative asshat (and thus begins such lovely statements as "interment during wwii was right)
>started subbing (but still can't translate)
>+1 dog
>actually started going on irc whoa
>realized i lean towards women, not men (that explains even more)
> still still no friends

And here we are now in my boring life.


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## 1. Luftballon

since joining tcod _is_ my life

or well literally over half of the parts of my life which I can remember

which covers all the interesting parts anyway


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## Minish

Jolty said:


> things that have been a constant source of happiness in all that time:
> >pokemon
> >


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## Murkrow

Nothing particularly amazing has happened to me, just the usually stuff of going to school, leaving school, going to uni.
My life has a period of about a couple of weeks where in general nothing changes but when on the internet I find a new video game/tv show/whatever, get really into it but think about it so much that I'm tired of it and move on. Also it involves thinking "that hobby looks like fun, maybe I'll try it!" which I then do, realise I'm rubbish at it and then not improve at all because I give up due to not being automatically amazing.

The only thing that's really significant to me is that I actually made friends (shock horror!) which has probably lead me to gain _some_ social skills but I'm still as shy as ever. It wasn't really me who made friends either, it was really just due to the fact that you can't really be in a class of size 3 and not talk to the other two people sometimes.

Bullying seems to be a topic here and I definitely stopped being bullied since I joined. Though I don't actually think about it all that much, I wouldn't really have mentioned it if other people weren't. That's not to say I wasn't bullied that badly, I absolutely hated it and it was probably partially responsible for my lack of friends, and if I feel like blaming all of life's problems on everyone but me, the cause of my shyness and awkwardness. But since it stopped it's like I just forgot about it. In fact a friend of mine was once talking to me and mentioned how he remembered me being bullied really really badly in the changing rooms for P.E. and I could barely remember the event he was talking about. Maybe that's for the better.
Not sure what it was that stopped the bullying. I wouldn't say it was the meanies leaving before sixth form, but maybe they were the ones that sort of encourages other people to be not nice to me, and their absence just made those people start being not not nice.

I've very recently become acquainted with people at uni who I expect to get along with really well. I've met people interested in the same kind of things as I have before but not people who talk about them.

EDIT: I also joined but eventually left various other websites. This is the only forum I visit at all any more.


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## I liek Squirtles

ok here i go
>joined when I was 11
>baseball league screwed everything up and started playing tennis
>obtained puberty
>obtained xbox
>made a whole fake region
>best friend left sadness abounded
>got into tv tropes
>got into sprite comics
>learned what mafia is
>met a bunch of cool persons
>switch between 3 different crushes idk
>started a novel
>so much I'll stop here hooray


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## Scootaloo

joined when i was twelve (had just turned twelve)
met new people
learned to play the great game of mafia
learned more about LGBT topics and now have a better understanding than before
played more mafia
met even more people

there miiiiiight be a bit more stuff but I have a bad memory.


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## Flora

Spoiler: WHOOPS LONG



- Joined February 2008. I was like thirteen and I prefer not to remember those times. 
- VB crash (really nothing cool happened between join and crash except grade school graduation but whatever)
- high school?? High school!!!
- Friends!!
- End of freshman year
- WHOOPS I'M NOT HETEROSEXUAL
- wait am i
- NOPE NOT
- friends????
- ANXIETY
- MORE ANXIETY
- MENTAL BREAKDOWNS ON SCHOOL TRIPS
- Yay no more crushes on straight girls/gay boys that i'm friends with
- Yay junior year
- Wait fuck crush on straight girl who i'm friends with
- I think???
- Well my crush has a boyfriend
- actually most of my friends have boyfriends
- Boyfriend!!
- Boyfriend???
- Oh whoops single and don't really care
- Yay senior
- Yay first show role
- Never mind I don't like this
- THREE SCRIPTS????
- Yay another play role I like this one
- Graduation???
- Disney!!!
- WHOOPS STILL CRUSH
- College????
- More friends????
- Wait fuck I don't like this friend
- WHOOPS FELL IN LOVE WITH A BROADWAY SHOW
- Okay I'm done with this friend
- Yay life is better


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## LuckyLapras' Duck

Spoiler: Could be long. I dunno.




Joined TCoDF in July 9th 2012
School got messed up because of rumours and other things like that
Recovered
Summer holidays started. Fwee!
Started various challenges on Pokemon
Didn't finish those challenges
School started again.
Discovered Miku and Gangnam Style. Music was changed forever.
Everything was fine.
BW2 came out.
Children In Need. *squeels*
Christmas. *more squeeling*
Completed B2. Felt epic. Went onto preparing for W2 Challengelocke
Had to leave due to mother's reactions
Missed a lot of stuff
Felt like me leaving was worse than I thought
Comic Relief. Good day, good day.
April Fools' = New iCarly (iBustATheif) + New Victorious (April Fools' Blank)
Realized I have no life
iGoodbye aired, followed with 10 minutes of crying
Came back
Found the internet had been majorly messed up
Went out for 5 hours. Had a life
Everything's been good since


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## kyeugh

Ooh.  Lots has happened.

I joined in 2011 I think, and was inactive for a while.  I...

-got a girlfriend and we stayed together for two years
-improved artistically
-matured a heckovalot as most of you can probably tell (although I'm still pretty immature)
-learned somethings about people
-started RPing
-learned how to actually play Pokemon
-got into sports
-made some new friends
-was introduced to painting
-became more religious (I'm not superreligious though)
-started dressing better (yay)
-became significantly more social
-stopped being a follower
-read some good books
-slimmed down a lot

and I think that covers it


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## Phantom

Wow... summing up almost eight-ish years. 

-Joined TCoD on a whim sometime around the beginning of '04 as the user "Fire Master". At this point I hardly ever had used the internet before. I didn't know how to type, hardly, and I knew jack diddly squat about computers. (It was a different time, people.) I had no friends really and kept to myself and my sports. 
- Lost my login info for my first username, so instead of going through password recovery I just made a new account. I was now Charizard2K. 
- I spent an absurd amount of time online. Over that summer I became my own person as well. I got tired of being teased and decided to do something about it. Fuck aspergers, I remember telling myself. I wanted to fit in with others, but in my own way. I begged my parents to take me through more social counseling and learn how to make myself fit in more while staying the same. My doc was awesome with that. By the time 8th grade came around I wasn't teased, it was one of the happiest times in my life. I was my own person, and I wasn't afraid to defend it. 
- 2005 graduated from eigth grade. 
- Started high school. 
- Met a huge group of new friends. It was a totally new experiece going from a entire class of ten people to a school of seven hundred. Met my still best friend in driver's ed. I realised how much I'd changed. When we were given a piece of paper and an envelope one day we were told to write a letter to our senior selves. (Aside from putting money in mine, which I still thank myself for) I wrote in my letter my login info for TCoD, and to "Remember this place." 
- Started as a police explorer. 
- Quit altar serving.
- I started to drift away from TCoD my sophomore year. I went on every now and then, but largely I'd left the site. I had become part of a semi popular group at school. I was super involved in everything at school from quiz bowl to sports to theater to arts.
- Got my driver's license.
- Got promoted in explorers, now a sargeant. 
- Got two jobs to help cover for high school tuition.
- Bought my first car, a '95 light powder blue Ford Contour.
- At this point I was too busy with work and school and real life. I disappeared from TCoD until the after my high school graduation.
- 2009 Graduated high school. Stilll not on the site. 
- First major car accident. Car was totaled and I got owned.
- Bought new car, '95 red Olds Achieva.
- Started college falll of 2009. 
- Promoted to liutenant in explorers.
- One day in November I found my things on the front lawn. I'd been kicked out of my parents. I was 19. I was basically homeless for a time, living out of my car, until my mother talked my dad into sense and let me back in. 
- I managed to live at my parents for a few more months before I realized I just couldn't do it anymore. I quit school for basically good and moved out on my own. This was around fall 2010. I haven't been able to afford school since. 
- Started working full time security, bouncing for parties, specials and such. Then got a full time account which I am still at today. 
- Romance stuff happened and failed.
- Oh by the way mom and dad I'm not exactly straight and I don't believe in god, whoops.
- Started working as a volunteer EMT, still am.
- Lost all my friends, decided to start from scratch. 
- 2010 I remembered TCoD, and decided to come back, only to find out that the site had MOVED YET AGAIN, and I had to reregister. So it looked like I'd only been here since 2010, but I've really been a member since 2004.
- There were a lot of deaths in 2011-2012 for my family, including my baby twin nephews, it was a bad year.
- Crashed my Achieva, bought my current SUV.
- Moved out from my first apartment a few months ago, and I plan to go back to school soon. My best friend came to the realization that of our group of friends from high school, including those older than us, I was the only one that was, in a sense, an adult. Not sure what that means but okay.

Right now my life is mostly work and every now and then seeing friends and family. I volunteer at three nursing homes, plus my EMT work. I also work at the family food shelf that my grandparents started. (It's still hard to call it my grandfather's food shelf since gram died. It's still weird.)


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## Light

Spoiler: Stuff



-Joined early 2009, freshman in high school
-I can think for myself! To the debating hall!
-That didn't go well.
-Not much happening in school; transfered from public school in 8th grade to private christian high school. Not making any friends.
-Trying to stay away from TCoD, something keeps bringing me back.
-About 4 months of my life is studying for the PSAT. Trying to get National Merit Scholar and have free college.
-Start questioning Christian upbringing.
-Junior year! Studying Japanese at Community College. Find out about Death Note.
-Test day: surging anxiety! Didn't even finish all the sections like on all the practice tests
-Test results: 206. Needed: 208.
-Sense of identity is crushed. Lapsing into depression.
-Okay so apparently I'm someone who skips class.
-Antidepressants. Therapy is bullshit.
-Prom is fun.
-Mania is also fun.
-Wreaking havoc in general is fun.
-I need to stay away from TCoD
-"Hey Butterfree can I please be banned"
-Mental Hospitals are as fun as you make them.
-I want to go back to public school.
-Christian worldview is essentially gone.
-Free to be honest with how I feel, realize I like guys.
-Oh my god there is about to be a Death Note mafia!
-Senior year at public school is great.
-Manage to get full tuition scholarship plus partial room and board. Start studying Architecture.
-Find out about Extra Credits. Getting involved and thinking about Game Design constantly.
-First boyfriend. Over in about a month.
-Second boyfriend. Parents find out. Fuck! Also comes out that I don't believe in God.
-Boyfriend lives in hometown, which I'm avoiding. Relationship fizzles.
-Architecture isn't worth living in the studio. Undecided major.
-Both boyfriends are interested in getting back together.


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## Momo(th)

Let's see . . . 

Started out as a junior when I joined here.

Was always quiet, but the constant bulling and family problems made me even more than before.

Gets worse and worse, but nevertheless I acted cheerful to most of my (few) friends.

Grades start slipping.

Cracked a few times.

Jeez now that I look back I really should have gotten help.

Finds out about the insane amount of Yugioh and Pokemon players in my school. 

Huzzah, my friend list tripled! 

Was still somewhat hesitant, as I had (and still have) an irrational sense of fear from rejection. 

Discovered MLP.

Still too shy.

Was around here when I realized I was asexual.

About a month later, I realized I was also trans.

Still not telling anyone (Except to my one close friend. He's the exception)

Was practically dying on the inside.

Suddenly, grades improve!

Got better.

I am still stupidly shy, and still have not told anyone of the above stuff, but at least things are better. Not so good, but better.

And I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm complaining too much.


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## surskitty

I'M NOT ACTUALLY AWARE OF A TIME I WASN'T ON TCOD


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## Worst Username Ever

So I joined in... 2008, this forum says, though it actually was earlier since I joined before the previous forum crashed years back. I think I might have been called "Chibs" at that forum... maybe in 2007 or...2006? Back then I was 11 or 12... that really WAS long ago, longer than I had thought!

let's seeee I'm not entirely sure of the order of all of these so they might not be fully chronological but:

- joined the forums
- wanted to make a website, so I had my dad set up a site for me
- parents got concerned about my internet use and dad set up a password on the startup screen, so I had to ask him or mom to type in the password every time i wanted to use the computer. this went on for a few years.
-once I made one of those "sprite army" threads (i think they were called? basically consisting of edits of one certain pokémon) because several other people had made them and I wanted one for my favorite pokemon. it got closed along with the others.
- first forum broke, I joined again some days after it got back, as "Worst Username Ever"
- MEMES ARE THE BEST THING THE INTERNET EVER CREATED and I don't give care they're "old" (oh god why old WUE)
- started middle school, got a bit better than elementary but just because most of the people that bullied me had grown out of it, still didn't have many friends at school
- once I got offended at someone hating lolcats (not because they didn't like them, but more because of them expressing it in more of a "it fucking sucks and you should be ashamed to like it" way rather than "i personally dislike it") and I started a giant fight over that
- alright, I should get a game console that's not a handheld one, since I never had one! nintendo's newest one is Wii so I will buy that!
- THIS IS AWESOME IN WAYS HANDHELDS CAN'T COME CLOSE don't worry DS I still love you!
- decided to try facebook, eh this site isn't actually that bad I guess
- gave up on my website after realizing I had no interesting content to put on there and couldn't code for shit
- alright this weaaboo shit is pretty dumb. you can still like anime and japanese popculture just stop calling things kawaii and stuff.
- there's something called asexuality? hmm that sounds kind of like how I feel... but I think I should still wait and see?
- parents got divorced, i started moving back and forth between their houses
- finally got skype after having stuck with msn since forever and refusing to switch, took a while to get used to but ended up growing on me and I understood why everyone liked this fancy new chat program more than msn
- ok maybe I should try doing sketches and learn about anatomy and stuff. ...yay, I'm drawing better already!
- spamming memes isn't cool actually. references now and then are fine, but jesus christ stop being annoying about it.
- joined #tcod now and then mostly to play apples to apples (I miss that, it was fun...)
- Started cosplaying. Finally got some more friends because of that.
- Went to my first con, had a great time
- zelda is a pretty cool game series! why didn't I start earlier!
- Started upper secondary (i think it's called here? ages 16-18), finally had people I got along with in my class
- hetalia is a pretty cool series!
- ok maybe everything in media class isn't that fun but it's the closest to the kind of jobs i might want
- ace attorney is awesome!
- went to desucon, my first con that wasn't the small one in my city. 2-day con at start of summer vacation, and it was really really fun!
- joined tumblr after realizing it's not just some "hipster site"
- tumblr is really cool!
- ooh i want to be a game designer! yeah! that's the job for me!
- got more concerned about various "social justice" issues
- actually rage comics aren't that good.
- I decided I was tired of moving back and forth between houses, having to move all my stuff back and forth for just a few days, and decided to just stay at dad's house and move everything over there.
- met many great people on tumblr!
- wait so I managed to be friends with cool people on tumblr that I admire? i'm so proud of myself!
- now I can finally buy stuff on the internet! this is what my life has been leading up to!
- oh, this asexual thing? well by now I'm pretty sure that's what I am.
- YES I GOT INTO GAME DESIGN SCHOOL!

i'm sure there's a lot more but that's what I remember now yeah


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## LadyJirachu

I think the good reputation giving thing that Butterfree just added onto this forum might help enhance my life quality, since now being kind is like a big part of what makes tcod what it is now......and Butterfree was always a very nice person ever since I first met her.

:)


So this actually means a lot to me. If you knew how my brain's wired, you'd understand why I wrote this post....thank you, Butterfree......

:')

And thats forever :)


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## mewtini

Jirachu said:


> I think the good reputation giving thing that Butterfree just added onto this forum might help enhance my life quality, since now being kind is like a big part of what makes tcod what it is now......and Butterfree was always a very nice person ever since I first met her.
> 
> :)
> 
> 
> So this actually means a lot to me. If you knew how my brain's wired, you'd understand why I wrote this post....thank you, Butterfree......
> 
> :')
> 
> And thats forever :)


Hm? What do you mean about rep being added? (it's pretty much always been kind :D!)

Anyway man it's two AM so um. Don't expect ~AMAZING DETAIL~

okay go

-join TCoDf. Mewtini I command you to be nine!
-be the most annoying darned little girl you could ever imagine on TCoDf. be the "lolz omg" spammer
-be kinda nice and friendly irl
-hey yeah birthday a month later \o/ be ten
-be happy for a while
-be in trouble with dad.
-be more suicidal.
-be more depressed.
-fall into emotional sinkhole.
-slowly get better. wow friends are useful
-think that I am nearing puberty
-get 3DS. aw yeah
-be eleven
-be in trouble again for being here
-be grounded for three months
-be semiabandoned by friends
-fall into another sinkhole
-make one friend that I still love oh my gosh he's great.
-hate one cousin, love the other
-be deserted by one friend that I thought was cool
-cousin starts saying "Mewtini hahaha yeah you know everything. I hate you"
-be teased
-be the outcast
-huh cool I'm in seventh grade
-be twelve
-realize that all my previous "best" friends won't talk to me because I'm not cool
-still think I have obtained puberty
-awful teeth yay.
-be the star bible quizzer
-get closer to awesomazing friend
-drift away from other friends
-other friends hate me apparently
-decide on going to duke university/college whatever
-through bible quizzing, regain some social confidence
-get social confidence smashed after friend tells me that I'm no fun to hang out with because I'm a terrible friend
-people think that I'm dating my amazinawesome friend what ewww
-great friend likes sister of at-the-time friend
-sister is mean. sister thinks Mewtini is insignificant and dumb
-Mewtini thinks friend is a little crazy
-friend says sister is not cool
-at-the-time friend quits bible quiz immediately prior to regional finals whaaaat
-hate that girl
-friend that deserted me talks to me
-awesome friend comes through and gives me free food (yes this is significant)
-friend likes that sister again wtf
-I'm going into high school next year
-regional finals. wow it's on thursday??? cools

AND THAT IS THE LONG AWAITED STORY OF ~*MEWTINI*~


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## LadyJirachu

It was always nice? Fasanating...

:)


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## Jolty

Jirachu said:


> It was always nice? Fasanating...
> 
> :)


i know you time travelled here from 2004
you can't keep it a secret forever


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## Autumn

Mewtini said:


> -decide on going to duke university/college whatever


I WAS ABOUT TO BE LIKE WE SHOULD TOTES VISIT EACH OTHER 'CAUSE I'M IN NC

THEN I WAS LIKE "OWAIT ODDS ARE I'LL BE IN SEATTLE OR VANCOUVER WHEN YOU GET TO COLLEGE"


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## Goldenpelt

I joined when I was 11. I wanna say it was in September 2007, but since the old forum's gone, I can't really say for sure. I'm gonna try to avoid mentioning every single fandom I've joined since then.



Spoiler: long



>joined TCoD
>became friends with Callum on TCoD (who is never on Facebook at the same time as me, that butt)
>joined the KH-Vids forum
>circle of internet friends begins
>started using MSN
>not so much became an atheist as realized religion was a thing
>nearly got an F in a class for the first time
>made a deviantArt account
>got my braces off
>circle of internet friends increases
>began taking Latin
>started reading Warriors
>pretended like I knew something about politics
>got my first laptop
>realized I was bisexual
>renewed interest in tokusatsu
>started watching Doctor Who
>watched Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
>got a dog
>attempted NaNoWriMo for the first time
>got into TV Tropes
>finished middle school (thankfully)
>became a Homestuck
>got my first cell phone
>joined marching band
>started high school
>fell in love with history
>went to homecoming (it was okay)
>saw Phantom of the Opera movie (started interest in musicals)
>started watching QI
>started actually training Pokemon other than my starter
>went to England for a week (and it was burning hot)
>got my learner's permit
>read a bit of Wandering Son
>made a Tumblr
>circle of internet friends increased exponentially
>watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica
>went to New York and saw Phantom on Broadway
>became a Nerdfighter
>procrastinated on my science fair project
>learned to hate AP US History
>got into Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
>started using Skype on a regular basis
>donated blood for the first time
>started reading Wandering Son again
>found out my blood type (A+)
>got my driver's license (still waiting for the licensing ceremony, though)
>definitively decided to major in Game Design in college (specifically art if possible)
>learned how to play Magic: The Gathering



Not the most exciting, but it's fun trying to see how much I've changed since then.


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## Hippy

Um, I haven't even been here for a year yet, but I decided to join the party and post!! :D



Spoiler: Might be long?



Friend died :'(
Sister got injured
Sister died :'(
Broke up with boyfriend of 5 years :'(
Other friend died :'(
Freaked out about university
Visited father for the first time in almost a year
Older sister visited for the first time in years
Vacation to New Mexico
Drama with my "friends"
Lost these "friends" for a while
Made up with these "friends" even though there is still awkwardness with us
Life got a bit better
Diagnosed with depression
Life got a lot better
Freaked out about college--almost changed my mind about being a nurse!
Life got much much better
Ex-Boyfriend got bleh
Life got almost to its worst time--Almost eating disorder, teeny bit of self-harm
Drama!!!
No more self-harm
Step-dad got even more mean than normal



Kind of depressing, but eh. I'll update this in a few months. That is kind of a lot for less than a year!! :P


----------



## Scootaloo

more things!

-felt like I was being social for once
-became atheist
-played lots of #leppa
-almost depression
-first B on report card and tons of tears
-gained guidance and pointers on art
-gained motivation to try out for honours art after considering not auditioning


----------



## Flora

Flora said:


> Spoiler: WHOOPS LONG
> 
> 
> 
> - Joined February 2008. I was like thirteen and I prefer not to remember those times.
> - VB crash (really nothing cool happened between join and crash except grade school graduation but whatever)
> - high school?? High school!!!
> - Friends!!
> - End of freshman year
> - WHOOPS I'M NOT HETEROSEXUAL
> - wait am i
> - NOPE NOT
> - friends????
> - ANXIETY
> - MORE ANXIETY
> - MENTAL BREAKDOWNS ON SCHOOL TRIPS
> - Yay no more crushes on straight girls/gay boys that i'm friends with
> - Yay junior year
> - Wait fuck crush on straight girl who i'm friends with
> - I think???
> - Well my crush has a boyfriend
> - actually most of my friends have boyfriends
> - Boyfriend!!
> - Boyfriend???
> - Oh whoops single and don't really care
> - Yay senior
> - Yay first show role
> - Never mind I don't like this
> - THREE SCRIPTS????
> - Yay another play role I like this one
> - Graduation???
> - Disney!!!
> - WHOOPS STILL CRUSH
> - College????
> - More friends????
> - Wait fuck I don't like this friend
> - WHOOPS FELL IN LOVE WITH A BROADWAY SHOW
> - Okay I'm done with this friend
> - Yay life is better


I ACTUALLY STARTED LAUGHING AT "Boyfriend!! Boyfriend???" FOR SOME REASON

Anyways wow April-of-last-year!Flora if you thought life was good _then _imagine what awaited you less than a year later. aka now.



Spoiler: idk how long this is oops



-man what even happened in april of last year that was very unimportant I guess
-OH CHICAGO WENT UP CHICAGO WAS GOOD
-okay to be totally honest I don't remember what happened in 2013 up until maybe july? whatever
-Disney!
-oh no fighting with my sister in Disney
-Aruba!
-Sophomore year! The freshmen are cool.
-...oh wait I actually like that one a little oops.
-NO KAYLEE THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME A COUGAR
-making friends with seniors~ oh no wait that's a bad idea
-SELF ESTEEM WHAT
-this dance class is fun
-HALLOWEEN PARTY! oh my god my classmates are wonderful
-dance final??? oh god
-dance final!!! i was awesome.
-christmas party!! woo. my classmates are sweethearts.
-...wait wait no senior friend why are you crying oh my god
-winter break!
-senior friend that picture is old why are you liking it all of a sudden NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE MY PHONE IS BLOWING UP WITH NOTIFICATIONS
-wait maybe senior friend likes me
-OR IT'S WISHFUL THINKING POSSIBLY BECAUSE HI THERE CRUSH
-back to school! I have a class with senior friend yay~
-Sockhop! aww everyone looks cute at the sockhop.
-...wow i was asked to dance by senior friend at the sockhop. does this mean anything it might mean something.
-valentine's day did literally nothing except i got senior friend's number finally
-anne frank opened! questionable comments apologizing for not being cute freshmen! I'm confused!
-slowly growing accustomed to the idea that maybe it's not wishful thinking
-went to a party, was kinda tired, decided "fuck it i'm setting phasers to full flirt," _put my head on senior guy's fucking shoulder..._ and was asked if I was drunk. *sigh*
-decided this boy is either oblivious or not self-confident enough to recognize the damn flirting, semi-permanently set phasers to full flirt. so far nothing has come of it.
-ARGH.


----------



## Music Dragon

Dear Flora,

Even at maximum frequency, phasers are not guaranteed to trigger reciprocation. If reciprocation does not initiate spontaneously within a few weeks, you will need to use a different method. I recommend a type-2 or type-3 disruptor. For the type-2 disruptor: walk up to your senior friend and say "Yo, I have a crush on you". For the type-3 disruptor: put on your surliest frown, walk up to your senior friend, smack the back of his head and say "YO. I HAVE A CRUSH ON YOU." This should give you enough data to complete your analysis.

I hope you found this answer helpful! Good luck with your research!

Regards,
Prof. Bilman Badgerway
Institute of Limerence Studies


----------



## Dar

My turn!



Spoiler: Long-ish



-Was 10 when I joined TCoD
-Has about 2-3 friends, but is okay with this
-Yes, I've always been socially awkward
-Started middle school, actually liked it since I'd come to the conclusion that everybody I know is an asshole long before
-Get a few more friends
-Dance around Forum Games  an hour a day
-Turn eleven
-Start dating someone on TCoD, which goes well for a few months
-Self-hate issues arrise
-Learn the joy of helping other people with their problems even though I can't fix my own
-Much break up. Much sad. Still friends tho
-Learn news that school will be closing over the summer and that I'll lose all my friends other than the ones I started with
-More sad
-Grades go up
-Get better at violin
-ALL THE NINTENDO
-Summer!
-Get invited to a weeklong event in Washington D.C.
-Bored and lonely
-Seventh grade starts, now have to go to a different school
-Oh also my new school has middle and high schoolers so I learn a few things
-Turn twelve
-Still TCoD regular
-Internet addiction arrises
-Buy Minecraft, which essentially ruins my life
-One of my two remaining friends goes fandom-crazy
-I soon follow
-TCoD friend leaves due to cyberbullying
-Much sad
-Don't really go on TCoD for a while
-Watch Fullmetal Alchemist, the first in a long line of animés
-Get high for the first time with friend
-IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT SPRAY PAINT SMELLS AMAZING
-Have a generally good time, with depression issues still there
-SEX EDUCATION
-Nothing else from 7th grade really
-Another summer
-Did pretty much nothing
-8th grade!
-Start playing guitar
-Learn who caused TCoD friend to leave, gets mad
-Gets over it
-Turns 13
-Starts going to TCoD again
-Learn that the owner of my guitar lessons had a relationship with a minor, go somewhere else
-Makes a new best friend
-Self-hate issues worsen, begin to believe that all my friends hate me
-Friend assures me that they don't
-Friend talks about moving, more sad
-Remember old girlfriend! Still really good friends!
-Doctor Who, Torchwood, Supernatural, and more anime happen
-Lose inspiration and motivation for everything
-Today


----------



## I liek Squirtles

I did this about a year ago, I believe it's time for an update.



Spoiler: my life



>Was 11 when I joined the Cave.
>Joined ASB.
>Learned what Mafia was.
>Pissed of Negrek once. Others, too.
>Learned a lot about how everything works. 
>Graduated middle school (ends in 8th grade here). Huzzah.
>Learned how to dance salsa jesus took long enough. Merengue and bachata, too.
>Jr. Prom happened. Dance with crush. _Thrice._
>Saw my baby cousin during June, went to Disney with her.
>Went to this art, circus, and theater camp I go to that is always awesome. 
>Started watching Doctor Who. Got Netflix bit before that.
>Started high school.
>Got into Model United Nations, Theater, Math, and other clubs.
>Won 5th place in a MUN competition with my friend's brother.
>Managed to get excused from all the finals and somehow get A's in all of the classes. 
>Got cast in Peter for Romeo and Juliet which happened between the 30th of January to the 2nd of February.
>X happened couple months before that. 
>Won first place in Science Fair! Although that's determined by points, so there are other first places, too.
>Actually making advances on my crush.
>Resolving to actually ask her out this Saturday, after the MUN competition.
>Continued writing my story.
>Got a deviantART account.
>Became active again on tCoD jeez.
>Opened up socially.



Whoo! This last year has been productive.


----------



## Autumn

>start hating everything


----------



## Ever

Spoiler: life and stuff



> Joined when I was a stupid 11-year-old (key word being stupid)
> Annoyed the hell out of everyone
> Got an infraction for plagiarism!
> Started dating someone from TCoD
> Self harm is a thing
> Breaks up with said TCoD person
> Starts dating a boy
> Becomes inactive on TCoD
> Turns 12
> Has a nasty breakup with boyfriend and best friend
> Self harm is a big thing
> Am I bisexual? Pansexual?
> Discovers Kpop
> Starts to write fanfiction
> Enters the eighth grade
> Sometime during this year I get back on TCoD, although I'm not nearly as active as before.
> Finds a new group of friends who are really super great
> TUMBLR?!
> Starts dating current girlfriend
> HOLY SHIT I HAVE TO APPLY FOR HIGH SCHOOL?!
> HOLY SHIT AM I GAY?!
> Parents discover self harm and throw me in therapy
> I graduate middle school. Everyone except my girlfriend is going to a different school
> Learn to play the guitar!
> Clean from self harm for 5 whole months
> Except in that five months I develop and eating disorder
> I start high school. It doesn't suck.
> Join a dance company!
> Self harm is a thing again.
> Like, a really big thing.
> Aaand so is my eating disorder
> I'M TOO BUSY TO JOIN THE MUSICAL
> I HAVE TO TAKE FINALS?!
> MY MATH TEACHER THIS SEMESTER IS TERRIBLE
> Get into intermediate choir



Since joining TCoD I have...
> Become a better writer
> Gotten a lot quieter
> Somehow also gotten a lot sassier


----------



## Vholvek

Wow this is really old! Redoing.



Spoiler: stuff



I was eleven
Got a girlfriend
She was a bitch
Lost a girlfriend
Got another one
She was a bitch too
wow I really had relationship probs :/
Dumped her
Then I actually got a life and got active
Got a bit more religious
Realized I'm not really hetero but not really homo
Am really on edge about that ^^^
Still deciding because it's kind of a weird time/phase
Found out I'm really gifted in English and Math
Lost that active life I mentioned earlier
Now I have no idea what to do with my life
I like nobody and hate everyone D:


----------



## Jolty

i have been here for 10 and a half years and the only thing that's changed is that i am slightly less stupid than i was when i was 11


----------



## Hippy

Time for an update! My last post on this was almost a year ago, but Ohmygosh I was so whiny and sad and annoying XD



Spoiler: Just in caseiez this might be long



Since the last update...

Self harm has returned, pretty badly. 
Eating disorder returned.
Things with the evil step dad got really bad.
Made a fantabulous friend on this forum!
Got grounded from my laptop :(
Started texting the previously mentioned fantabulous friend!
Became the girlfriend of that fantabulous friend!!!!
Life began looking better
But then the evil step dad got really really really bad. 
Eating disorder and self harm got worse. 
Three months with my boyfriend!!!
Went on vacation with my best friend. 
Vacation ended up being terrible for me because evil people. 
Sad :(
Things with step dad got even worse. 
Eating disorder got at its worst, at one of my lowest weights. 
Depression :(
Eating disorder almost kills me multiple times. 
The evil step dad is gone. 
 Six months with my spectaculartastic boyfriend!!! 
Mom gets pregnant with her ex-husband!
The baby is lost :(
Seven months with my perfect boyfriend!!


Yay! It has been very up and down but I have a feeling it will get better :)


----------



## DarkAura

Spoiler: Did I do this already, or no?



>Joined when I was eleven 
>Was a huge buttmunch and no one can say otherwise
>Turned twelve
>Nothing changed
>Turn thirteen
>oH MY GOSH THE WORLD AROUND ME SUDDENLY BECAME CLEAR
>Got interested in writing
>Likes writing
>Kept writing
>People at my school respected me more due to me being a more tolerable person
>Joined TVTropes
>Joined... a lot of things, really.
>Turned fourteen
>Suddenly got into Total Drama
>Suddenly has an inner desire to participate on Survivor when I'm old enough
>Now



I really don't think I did anything super exciting.


----------



## RespectTheBlade

I apparently haven't done this yet, which surprises me. I'm just about finished with high school, and I joined in eighth grade, so it's gonna take a while.


Spoiler: Welp, here we go.



>Joined TCoD when I was… 13? 12? Somewhere around then
>Moved from Chicago to Indiana
>Joined for friends of a common interest group + knowledge of the forums from friends + ASB
>Joined Science Olympiad
>Went through middle school (8th grade) which sucked
>HGSS came out
>Brief and fairly unsccesful attempt at spriting
>Started talking more frequently with friend from Chicago about pokemon + other things
>Started high school
>Joined Choir
>Actually started making IRL friends
>Semi-formal incident, vowed off of dating or attempting to for a while
>Started talking to Silver
>Started dating Silver
>BW came out.
>Made it to Science Olympiad Nationals
>Experienced huge homework difficulty spike
>Stopped dating Silver
>Started Sophomore year of high school
>Got into advanced concert choir at school
>Brief and mostly unsuccessful attempt at art
>Trip up to Vermont 
>BW2 came out.
>Moved into better house over the summer
>Purchased first 3DS
>Started Junior Year of High School
>Started IB Program
>Major expansion of interests
>Got into Doctor Who
>Got into Sherlock
>Started a Tumblr
>Got into Supernatural
>Music taste expanded to include several bands (Muse, Coldplay, various others) 
>Found interest in anime (First anime watched- sword art online)
>actually legitimately cried after watching an episode of something (Sherlock, The Reichenbach Fall)
>did it again surprisingly (doctor who, The Angels Take Manhattan)
>Rekindled fascination with space and astronomy
>Started writing more, started writing fanfiction again. 
>Started looking at colleges
>Trip to Boston for college visit at MIT
>Started taking piano lessons
>Started transposing/arranging music as a hobby 
>Started Senior Year of High school
>First major vocal solo (‘And So It Goes’ by Billy Joel)
>Started getting really confident/good at Science Olympiad (mainly Astronomy)
>XY came out
>Went to see the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary in a theater dressed as David Tennant (:D)
>Applied to Boston University
>Got accepted into Boston University to study Astronomy and Physics 
>3DS broke
>Got kicked out of house by landlord (who was and remains an asshole)
>Got really nice 3DS XL for Christmas
>Found much nicer house, moved successfully.
>Started IV breeding in x and y, it's surprisingly fun?
>Finished (?) AP Calculus
>Immense pile of projects due
>Miraculously finished most of the products
>Now


----------



## Shut the Hell Up

If bumping this is against the rules, I'm sorry. However, I didn't see anything about bumping topics.

Anyways, here's my life since joining tCoD:

-Registered!
-Discovered the mafia forum and wanted to join every game
-My job keeps me really busy
-Got an infraction on my 1-week anniversary for something stupid (meaning my act was stupid. The infraction wasn't stupid)
-Went to a family reunion and discovered there's free wifi at the resort. Yay!
-Mafia is still really cool :)
-And more to come!


----------



## Michi

I'm a dusty old man on this site (four years as a member! but I'm only 18) and have neglected to post for a full year at a time. So yeah, a LOT has happened - I was getting ready for freshman year of High School when I joined, having just graduated from eighth grade, and now I'm going to college in 21 days!


----------



## Surfingpichu

-Joins circa 2004
-huge dork also 11 and stupid.
-proceeds to be a huge dork. 
-gets involved with weird AAP stuff gods that was such a weird time
-death of proboards forum
-leaves for a friend's forum in the wake of increasingly strange drama stuff
-stays there for 5 ish years
- in the mean time turns into a band dork
- which in turn becomes a flute player
- which in turn becomes a music major in college
- also high school and middle school happen but that isn't important. 
- gets into fanfiction
- writes grand 200,000 word epic about final fantasy 1 and then doesn't touch it for four years
- discovers asexuality and is confused ever since
- Joins another forum, proceeds to make a 1,000,000+ word role play happen that culminates in a doomed forum of its own and Pichu finding a boyfriend 
- becomes grad student in music
- still a dork 
- wow this timeline is a mess
- that's pretty much it though
-dear lord


----------



## Vholvek

DarkAura said:


> [hide=Did I do this already, or no?]
> >Joined when I was eleven
> >Was a huge buttmunch and no one can say otherwise
> >Turned twelve
> >Nothing changed
> >Turn thirteen
> >oH MY GOSH THE WORLD AROUND ME SUDDENLY BECAME CLEAR
> >Got interested in writing
> >People at my school respected me more due to me being a more tolerable person
> .


Wow this is really me.


----------



## Luxcario

Spoiler: Wall of Text



Here goes...
I can't remember much from the ages of 9 to 11 so bear with me on that one.

-Joined at age 9
-kept myself to myself for about a month
-BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER. (got my iPod Touch)
-Turned ten (it's good to be double-figures)
-Not much happened
-Turned eleven
-Bought Minecraft (which has consumed my life ever since, pretty much)
-Basic easy end-of-primary-school-exams (full marks on all the English tests, slightly lower marks on the others)
-End of primary (elementary) school! It's time to go out into the world! (Sorta.)
-Realised I'm totally addicted to Minecraft
-Secondary school starts
-Almost all my friends went to the other local school so I have only 2 friends at the start of Y7
-One of those two friends turns out to be a total jackass, he starts blanking me and almost convinces my aforementioned friend to blank me as well
-I make a couple of new friends who are both geeks like me
-Teachers are total pains
-Start learning Spanish and Latin (both are cool)
-I somehow manage to get through the autumn term, got Skyrim for Christmas
-Turned twelve
-First crush
-TWO UNREMARKABLE TERMS
-Bordering on the edge of popularity
-Summer starts! (yay!)
-Am introduced to Town of Salem, a web-browser version of Mafia which is quite a bit more complex and challenging and I love it.
-Spain. (four mosquito bites on my arse)
-Joined Steam, which is probably the best thing in existence.
-The following day, bought Terraria through Steam. Finished in a couple of weeks.
-Started playing TF2, which makes all other first-person shooters look crap.
-Y8 starts. I'm ill-prepared for another year of mind-numbing classes.
-Residential trip with school
-Second crush
-Today.


----------



## LadyJirachu

Not much different, since this forum is kind of dead XD; Sorry to say it.


----------



## Flora

I'm screaming at MD's response to my last post oh my god

SO WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCE FEBRUARY OF 2014



Spoiler: MY LIFE IS SOMETHING



-I...honestly don't remember
-Music Man???? that happened????? I guess????
-then-roommate gets drunk at a party, makes out with random guy, is mistaken for dating her best friend by said best friend's roommate's best friend. it was incredibly sad. and also hilarious.
-summer also happened?????
-at some point down the line also rebecame friends with the guy I cut off????
-junior year??? directing??? what????
-gave up on trying to hide the crush thing from my college friends
-new college friend figured it out in five seconds
-SHAKESPEARE TOUR
-WE INTRODUCED OUR SHAKES TOUR MODERATOR TO "ACTUAL CANNIBAL SHIA LABEOUF"
-"he's still making movies, right?' "uh yeah" "_so how can we really be safe" _EMMY-WINNING WRITER WAYNE TURNEY EVERYONE
-no really he won an emmy for writing a kids show
-he doesn't physically possess the emmy, the studio has it
-got drunk for the first time, was told I was annoying
-eventually friend-dumped the shithead who said drunk!flora was annoying
-this is not in chronological order
-was told that we would go barhopping for my twenty-first
-told graduated friend, made a grave error because he immediately texted the guy who suggested it
-former roommate apparently knew about the crush thing and _convinced herself she was wrong
-_discovered that my teddy bear's name was a pun and regretted it for life
-THE GRILLED CHEESE INCIDENT
-more friends??? okay
-weird friend double agent stuff????
-i'm not even fucking joking
-goes to last party of the year; discovers the entire grade wants to go barhopping with me on my 21st
-summer happens again
-two days before i go back to school; discover oddly intricate birthday plans
-gets ditched by her ride so he can _take a fucking shower????_, is late to own birthday
-graduated friend yells at everyone to get me wasted since he couldn't be there
-made a blood oath while drunk texting a friend on friend's birthday???????????? everyone approves
-_?????????????????????????_


----------



## Autumn

>switched to being a music major
>met VM twice more in the Real World!
>made a cool friend
>subsequently lost her (and my best friend of four and a half years)
>prepared for grad school
>um


----------



## LadyJirachu

I suppose this place gives me something to do, i'm bored a lot when i'm not sleeping xP

Also, i don't like pressuring myself about things. I am a bit timid talking to people here outside of butterfree, tough XD;


----------



## Kung Fu Ferret

Recently became a moderator on a small Zoo Tycoon 2 forum I frequented. Warned a few users for post-farming just so they could get the downloadable content for themselves. 

I'm not hinting about wanting to be a mod here, as we have plenty right now, but it would be nice.


----------



## Autumn

Kung Fu Ferret said:


> Recently became a moderator on a small Zoo Tycoon 2 forum I frequented. Warned a few users for post-farming just so they could get the downloadable content for themselves.
> 
> I'm not hinting about wanting to be a mod here, as we have plenty right now, but it would be nice.


Considering the lack of posts and the lack of rulebreakers in general i feel like we have more than enough mods haha


----------



## Murkrow

Altissimo said:


> Considering the lack of posts and the lack of rulebreakers in general i feel like we have more than enough mods haha


I have no idea why but I keep mixing up whether it's you or UV who is a mod.


----------



## Jolty

i was a mod here once
i don't think i got to do any actual mod things but i have my own forum for that. all i do is change the forum skin every so often

anyway since i last posted in this thread i have something vaguely resembling a regular adult life now
i am /actually/ going to meet my girlfriend in /person/ in 11 days
she lives in the us. i paid for the flight myself. with money from my job that i don't hate.


----------



## Autumn

Murkrow said:


> I have no idea why but I keep mixing up whether it's you or UV who is a mod.


That's a first! It's UV though


----------



## DarkAura

Oh jeez, it's been a while since the last time I posted in this thread. 



Spoiler: Stuff from the last year and junk



*So like, I've made so many friends on this Total Drama forum, and it's like a big family and I love it
*I do art stuff now
*I wanna be a storyboarder someday
*Yup
*Really gonna try and do it
*Gonna take a crazy long time probably
*Anyway
*Freshman year of high school came and went 
*I was homeless for the first semester but 'sall good now
*Still writin'
*Still telling stories
*Still interwebbin'
*Sophomore now
*It's really cool how I've grown so much even from a year ago, and I know I still have even more to learn, and I'm just so so _psyched_ about it!!


----------



## Flora

Spoiler: HAHAHAHAHAHA MY LIFE KEEPS GETTING MORE RIDICULOUS IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE



-I'M AWARE I LAST POSTED HERE LAST MONTH BUT!!!!
-Show opens, suddenly realizes that I and one of my best friends should totally trick the freshmen ushers into thinking we're dating
-friend is all for this, is _really good at it for some reason
_-freshmen could absolutely care less, upperclassmen start trying their damnedest to make it Actually A Thing
-I'm not even kidding someone pulled me aside for _twenty minutes
-_some point along the line I start seriously thinking about it; I want to bash my head on the wall immediately after because _come on Flora seriously????? Feelings-with-a-capital-F don't ever end well
_-eventually the army of hospitality folks basically _shove him at me yelling ASK HER OUT_ which I somehow did not know about until like two dates in
-dates happen???? apparently this was a very long time coming
-slowly starts to realize that the freshmen - at least some of them - either thought we were dating already and just didn't mention it or figured out that the two of us are total idiots and just kept their mouths shut because it was funny
-_everyone is flipping their shit_



_what has my life become_


----------



## ColorBlind

>Joined TCoD when it first switched to vB
>I was around 13ish I think
>Spent a ton of time lurking because I was extremely introverted. I read so many drama threads because that stuff made me laugh uncontrollably. I also remember Eevee's thread about why IE sucked, so I stopped using it.
>vB forums died
>vB forums came back. I registered again.
>I had a webcomic that I was working hard on. No one liked it lol. It ran from 2007-2009.
>I read other webcomics. Those kept me happy (Star Guys, Pokéchow, Angel Moxie, Romeo (a Pokémon comic about a Clefairy), Metal Virus, others...)
>I started high school. My emotional problems got really bad.
>I stopped my comic due to things like that. I stopped reading other comics too.
>I left TCoD and other Pokémon places because it was starting to bore me.
>I got Pokémon HG, which made me come back to the Pokémon forums.
>My emotional problems got worse. I was getting severely bullied in high school. Staff didn't care. Family didn't care. Bad thoughts started.
>Got addicted to MMORPGS. Those were my new obsession since I left the webcomic world.
>Nostalgia hit me to where I went back to the Pokémon forums
>I created a Pokémon website. I had always wanted one back when it was cool to have one and when they all were so different from each other. I spent so many years learning HTML and making bad websites. This one in particular I was fully proud of.
>I became really mean to people on the various forums. High school sucked really bad, so I took it out using the whole "anonymity" principle.
>I ended up leaving the website community of the very few sites  that were left. My mom kept telling me I'll never have a career in art if all I did was draw Pokémon. This combined with so many of those sites shutting down made me upset. I felt so distant from the Pokémon fandom because I didn't play the games much anymore; it was too expensive to invest in Black/White or Black2/White2. I thought having a website would help, but it caused more harm to me than good. I had wished that I made a website in the early 2000s. Those were the glory years of fansites.
>During my last year of high school, the bullying got worse. Depression started. I started doing bad things to myself and thinking awful things.
>High school graduation. I planned to never see these people again for the rest of my life. No high school reunions for me!
>First year of college. It opened my eyes.
>I became a Christian (WOOT!!!!!!!!!!!)
>Started going to counseling. My counselor sucked really bad. It was a horrible experience for the entire year. It made me regret ever seeking help.
>Had a crappy roomate
>Got a new roomate
>Made a ton of IRL friends to where I stopped lurking on forums all the time.
>I stopped making digital art because I got bored of it. Decided to start pursuing traditional art instead.
>Closed my Pokémon site down. Also closed down my digital art site.
>Second year of college was difficult. One of my roomates sucked really bad. We fought all the time etc.
>Third year of college was challenging. My depression got worse. My closest friend and I started going to a different counselor altogether.
>I starting to paint with acrylics. It was the best thing ever.
>I went abroad for the first time. It was on a mission trip for 20 days! Great experience!
>Went to San Francisco on another mission trip (spring break!!!!!!!!!!!)
>Now in last semester of college. Job hunting. I have a Youtube channel, I post my acrylic paintings in a lot of places. I'm trying to get my driver's license.
>I came back to Pokémon forums due to nostalgia. This is seriously the only fandom that I have history in. All my old accounts still exist, so I'm posting in various places or lurking still. I'm a lot more extroverted than I ever was before. I also speak my mind rather than hide my opinions. I am a much better person than I ever was a kid. 
I'm a proud Christian \o/
I also learned that it is nice to hear other people's opinions on things. I used to always shun people for not doing "the right thing" or stuff like that. Life was very black and white before college. I have a lot of worldly views on things. It is amazing.


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## Lady Grimdour

I joined well before vB, 2006 I *think*? I was Little Miss Nobody back in the old forums. Hell, I don't think I was even a Miss back then. I had just moved from Mew's Hangout (god rest its soul).

I like to think I was a hell of a spriter, hell I thought I was hot shit. But yeah. Spent most of my teenage days on paint, spriting god knows how many things.

The move to here happened, and I was proud to have my name on pinned posts, namely the first Spriter's Showcase, as well as the thing. Most of my focus was my art, which I got good at, considering I barely had any idea what layers were. This also spanned my weird weeaboo-but-not phase, where I didn't necessarily worship Japan and all that came with it, but I went by the name Rin. I still even have some of my old sprites from back then, depicting me with kinda spiky blue hair. Think the Bird Keeper from R/S/E.

Major milestone was when I was 15/16. I met Kim; I think her user was either Torchic or something along those lines. But basically, we started a long distance relationship: I was in South Wales, she was in California. Around this time, I kinda figured I wasn't all dude. But I thought it was normal puberty stuff, I mean everyone was talking about sex, right? Mine was just a skip away from it.

So we went out for six months, and since she's 18 when I hit 16, she needed to focus on college and we broke up. I remember crying for months on end. I kept our messages on here, until vb got deleted. Lost all of that.

Then Sixth Form happened, and I kinda found my stride socially. Spent less and less time here, and less time on my art. Then Uni happened, and I left. Well, pretty much left. I'd come back every few months just to see what's up, but my life pretty much became a blur.

THEN the fun stuff happened. I realised I needed to come out, so I came out as a girl. Was taken very well, and moved on from there.

I've now finished University, working as a freelance web developer/illustrator, with a stint as Audio-Visual Manager for stage shows and films locally. All the while visiting this place less and less, as life took over. Last time I visited was New Year 2015.

But yeah. I've moved on from spriting, but still have the tools and habits I had when drawing stuff. Just on a different style. I've also moved on from having an online persona of that Bird Keeper guy, to actually drawing myself as how I look, glasses and dark skin included; all the things I used to hate about myself.

Fun fact: I've kept the online handle Grimdour all throughout.


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## Sglod

Well, since joining (three days ago) I have taken a geography exam and eaten a lot of curry and chips...


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## Stryke

Well, this site gave me something new to compulsively check every hour. It's also everything I thought a forum would be and more. And... That's it for now I guess.


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## Flora

Flora said:


> _what has my life become_


I don't know, self. I just don't know.



Spoiler: my life is a joke also wow flora tmi a bit



-everyone is still flipping their shit since October
-no seriously even the box office manager (who isn't even a STUDENT) ships us hardcore, we have reaffirmed someone's belief in love apparently and it is the secondmost alarming thing ever
-did a little student-run scene! Had a fuckin blast
-did a little film project for former roomie! Also had a fuckin blast
-got cast in my senior thing as everyone's backup! Having a mix of fun and dread.
-friend came to visit! Had a fuckin blast.
-New Years eve party! Had a fuckin blast.
-I'm very tired and this is not in order oops
-almost got laid? Everyone exploded and it was the most alarming thing ever
-roommate problems??? Good friend, not good to room with
-accidentally got into the flash and rwby and the entire marvel cinematic universe because my boyfriend is a huge nerd
-but I got him into ms marvel so it's okay


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## Arylett Charnoa

Anything before I first joined this forum is but a distant memory. It contributed much to my personality, my woes, and my happiness in the days I was active. 

Since then, I have improved much. Therapy, medication, the general increase of maturity in aging, and having somebody who truly loves and appreciate me by my side have helped to lessen the more negative edges of my personality. A lot has happened, but I'm glad I'm where I am now.


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## Bluwiikoon

It's been a loooong time since I've been on TCoDf, but I still visit the main site every day. I got a lot better at art in the years that have passed, and I can kinda thank my beginnings as a sprite artist for my current style. It's how I learned that shading outlines is important, after all!

I think I've also matured a lot... I remember some times where I've been really mean and/or pushy to people from here and I really regret it. Younger me went through a lot of hard times, stress and medical difficulties, but man! Kai, Fortooate, if you ever read this then I gotta give you guys a proper apology sometime.

Let's see... I attempted to go to college for art but that didn't work out, due to my diabetes and diabetes-related anxieties, not to mention ridiculously long taxi journeys at ungodly hours. Needless to say, I don't look back on those years fondly, ahaha!

Things are generally better for me now, I think. Our financial situation isn't that great and there's a lot of days where I'm so ill or anxious that all I can do is sleep, but I'm trying my best. I'm getting a lot of commissions done and I feel like I've become way more responsible and chill about things.


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## Stryke

I think I've been here long enough that I can put actual stuff here:



Spoiler: oh dang its my life



First, I rejoined another Pokemon community that I hadn't gone on in a while due to being a huge noob while I was there; nowadays, I've made a lot of great friends there, and I don't regret going back at all. Then, I became a freaking teen, which didn't change much of my life tbh.

After that is a bit hazy, but I do remember becoming the scorekeeper for the 7th grade basketball team after I failed to make the actual team, and I brought my friend on to help me out, which was one of the best decisions I did in my middle school life; the job is pretty fun, I get to just hang with my friend until the game, the coach is just one of the best people I've ever met, and its just really amazing. I still do it today. I also got a really nasty case of insomnia during that time, which sucked.

Then, I got out of 7th grade,and went to the same summer camp that I had gone to since I was 6. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty neat there though; I made really good friends with people I never would've talked to before, and did stuff that most people don't get to do, which was great.

Then, 8th grade happened. I became part of my schools newspaper, which was neat. But then, 2 things happened that really made my year suck. First, a lot of relationship drama happened around December that made most of my friends hate me for a week and pretty much broke me because of the stress and emotions. The whole story is really long, so I won't put it here, but needless to say, that was one of the lowest points in my life. The next thing that happened was I started getting all existentialist, and started to wonder about life after death. It really, really scared me, and I couldn't even tell anyone about it cause I didn't want them to experience it too. I've kinda come to terms with it now, but that really wasn't fun either.

Anyway, fast forward to now, and I made it into Honors Band, I'm planning for High School, and I just asked out my crush today, in fact, so things are, for the most part, pretty good :D


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## Cynder

Well, it's been a year since I joined the forums, so I might as well put something here.



Spoiler:  A year of my life.



-I was coming out of one of my worst depressive bouts when I decided to join.
-Somehow managed to pass 9th grade despite a really late term paper.
-Started the next school year after a rather uneventful summer.
-Was finally referred to a psychologist for testing (depression and otherwise)
-Took the PSAT/NMSQT, scored well, and since then colleges have been overflowing my inbox with mail.
-Those tornados I was whining about earlier this year hit.
-Was diagnosed with depression, and later, Asperger's.
-Another depressive streak steamrolls me just in time for spring break.
-And that's a year of my life, not much to look at, is it?





Spoiler:  Second Year



I missed posting on the first like I meant to because my computer broke.
 - Finished 10th grade
 - I can't remember much of the summer, so I assume nothing worth noting happened
 - School started off well, especially since I went for some easier classes
 - Joined the robotics club
 - Missed a week and a half of school because I was ill, which led to a lot of stress, and, of course, a depression
 - Got my learner's permit (for driving)
 - Got an old (non-functional) truck for Christmas
 - Another bout of sickness and depression, not quite as bad or as long as the previous one
 - Took the SAT, made a 1370, which is apparently pretty good
 - Got the truck working
 - Computer broke
 - Yet another depression
 - Guess that's it. Gist of this year: I got sick and was depressed.
 - Also, somewhere in there I joined the telegram, I can't quite remember when.


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## Negrek

I meant to reply to this thread January 1st, 2015, which would be the one-decade anniversary of my joining TCoD! And then... I forgot.

I meant to reply to this thread January 1st, 2020, which would be the fifteen-year anniversary of my joining TCoD and also the start of a new decade! And then... I was too lazy.

But now, with some fresh new software to celebrate and it still being kind of close to fifteen years and the beginning of a new decade, I figured I would finally go ahead and reply to it, and then we'll see if I can bring myself to do so again in another fifteen years.

Anyhow, I joined TCoD way back on January 1st, 2005. I then proceeded to not post anything for a week or so for some reason--maybe because on January first I would have been stuck with my grandparents' awful dial-up and had to wait until I got home to my family's less awful dial-up before I really settled in. Regardless! Here's the first post I made back on what used to be Invisionfree TCoD. Witness the cringe of ancient teenage posts and also the absolutely godawful things Tapatalk wrought after buying out the forums' old host!

That's how it began. What have I been up to since then? It's been fifteen years, so here are fifteen noteworthy things that have happened to me in the fifteen years since I joined up here:

- I traveled without my family for the first time on a band trip to Europe
- Helped co-found ASB!
- Got my high school diploma
- Took a trip to China! Nothing super noteworthy about it except that it was a lot of fun
- Finished my second chaptered fanfic, _Clouded Sky_, after eight years of working on it
- Almost immediately started posting another gigantic fanfic because I never learn, I guess
- After multiple failed attempts, actually started to grasp how to program, radically altering the course of my education and career
- Started my own fansite, Thousand Roads
- Got my bachelor's degree
- Moved away from home and became financially independent from my parents
- Was first author on a paper published in a scientific journal, which was more or less a prerequisite for the next item
- Got my PhD
- Took a year-long trip around the world!
- Got my first ~"real"~ job
- Got a cat, my first pet entirely of my own, who is a sweet, gentle fluff angel

Although TCoD's slowed way, way down since 2005, I'm glad that the community's been around for as long as it has--and continues to be around, albeit not always on the forums themselves. I didn't quite grow up here, but I'd like to think I've learned a thing or two and matured somewhat in that time. I was incredibly fortunate to find this community fifteen years ago, and to have met so many wonderful people simply from hanging around here. Many of whom I've now had the privilege of meeting up with offline, and any of whom I'd be happy to see again if we managed to cross paths. I hope that you've all done well, whether life's taken you away from this place or not, and that you'll keep on keeping on out there, wherever you go.

In the geopolitical sense I can't call the last fifteen years all that great (petition to go back to, say, 2005? I feel like 2005 was good vintage), but  on a personal level I think I did pretty well. Onwards to the future! I 'll finish off with some goals for the next fifteen years:

- Finish _Salvage_, ideally THIS year but most definitely before we reach a decade of it being posted
- Publish at least one piece of original fiction in a professional venue
- Save enough to stop working full time


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## M&F

Negrek said:


> (petition to go back to, say, 2005? I feel like 2005 was good vintage)


ah, yes, the w bush era, a good geopolitical time for everyone involved-

anyways, huh, did I not ever post on this thread? strange, considering how self-obssessed I can be. so anyways, hi, I'm MF, I'm studying history in university at the ripe young age of nearly 26 after two other failed courses; maybe I'll make a lengthy timeline of it later if I feel like it


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## storm

it has been a while!! what _didn't_ happen since I joined tcod

uh. gender identity stuff? still working that out but that changed a lot since last I was here. I went through therapy, went back to school, figured out a direction. I'm a communications major now and could talk anyone's ear off about theory!! I wrote a lot of fanfic about various games, primarily destiny and swtor

I developed a lot more prominent chronic health stuff unfortunately, so most days I'm juggling that, caretaking and school. some things are better, some are worse - so it goes


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## Melanie

Oh wow. There is so, so much that's happened to me since I joined in late 2004. I'll just go over some of the most important and interesting stuff. Prepare for a wild ride:

- In early 2006, I became more active, because Mew's Hangout disappeared. Around that same time I fell into depression for the first time. All sorts of awful things were going on, including having a teacher who took stuff from me and also regularly threw away my lunch to try to get me to do more schoolwork. I didn't tell anyone what was going on, except for in some of the posts I made on TCoD. The posts were awful and didn't go into much detail, but they were the only place where I talked about anything that was happening to me. I still refer back to them nearly every time I do a writing project that talks about early 2006. I continued to have problems with depression and later 



Spoiler



self-harm


 for years after.

- Skipping to years later, I started having serious problems with paranoid delusions (well, psychosis in general, as I had hallucinations and such as well, but the delusions were by far the worst part) in mid-2011. This eventually led to a diagnosis of schizophrenia in 2013. I can't even come up with the words to describe how terrifying and awful paranoid delusions are; they, along with other symptoms, almost seemed to freeze things in place for years, causing me to be unable to work, take care of myself or live on my own, and resulted in three psychiatric hospitalizations. I'm just now, at 26, getting to the point where I'm mostly (but not entirely) free of paranoid thoughts and fears. I feel like I wasted so much time, but I couldn't get them to go away, and it's taken years of therapy and antipsychotic medication to get to where I am now. Now that I'm getting better, I'm trying to figure out how to one day be able to support myself financially and take care of myself, and I want to try to become more independent.

- While before I had problems with depression, later on I started having more problems with  other extreme moods. I had extreme high moods before, but rarely, and they didn't last as long. In late 2018 I had my first big manic episode. Suddenly, I was bursting with energy, quit wanting to sleep, and was basically all hyped up and ridiculously happy. This set the stage for what came in 2019, the earlier parts of which included quite a few manic (and probably mixed) episodes. These episodes caused me to end up in the ER multiple times, but none of them resulted in me being admitted to the hospital.

- In 2019, I discovered my passion and what I want to do in life. I had always loved to write, but in 2019 this reached a whole new level. Writing became my obsession, a stronger interest than anything I have ever had (even Pokémon). During some earlier times in 2019, this managed to combine itself with my manic episodes, which meant that I would do things like barely sleep and write a bunch more pages than usual in a short amount of time (I was having the time of my life and I was on a roll). After my medication was adjusted and the manic episodes stopped, I was a little concerned that this would cause my writing obsession to diminish. It didn't. If anything, it became stronger once the extreme moods were out of the way. After this, I started feeling more confident in myself, and what little paranoia was left was much easier to deal with when I had writing to excite me and distract me from it. In addition, my 



Spoiler



self-harm


 problem finally ended, partially because writing made me care about myself more. Also, at some point in 2019 I got a new doctor, and she thinks that due to my mood problems I might have schizoaffective disorder rather than schizophrenia.

- In early 2020, I was unable to write much of anything for maybe two months. Then, in late February, my interest returned, and that's where I am now. Hoping to get to the point where I can handle life better on my own. Wanting to finally do something with my life after years of being stuck. My fear of failure makes it hard for me to try, but I know that if I don't try, I'll regret it for the rest of my life.


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## IndigoClaudia

I joined like two weeks ago and the CoronaVirus happened, but then again, it already did happen before that.
Cave of Dragonflies honestly has changed my life a bit because now i have lovely friends on the internet who, like me, enjoy pokémon!

(And are massive nerds, like me).


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## mewtini

feeling suddenly emboldened to post in here, which is a decision that definitely isn't at all influenced by the fact that i've spent the last day reading my old posts and cringing

i joined in 2011! i was about to turn 10 and i have _just _turned 19, so i guess i've been here for pretty damn close to half of my lifetime. this forum is oddly enough kind of the only place that makes me feel at all "old," haha. when i joined i was in ... sixth? grade and i'm now at the end of my junior year of college. :T majoring in computer science, largely because of someone i met here, and am still very close/in contact with a couple people i've known for effectively 7+ years now which is crazy! 

anyway 10yo me would not have thought i'd still be at all attached to tcodf in the way i still am, but it's weird to realize how much of my life it's influenced in retrospect. nice to see it suddenly come back from the dead


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## Herbe

Oh, geez.

I think I joined in late 2014? I was 12 years old, and I know damn well most of my posts reflected that. At my join date, I was like a week away from realizing that I was attracted to girls, what a lovely time. So I marched my way on these forums because Pokemon was one of my only strong-held interests that I had kept for more than a couple of weeks. I did kinda drop off by summer 2015 (I think my laptop broke,) almost came back in 2017 but forums were deader than old fish, and now I'm here and everythings cool and awesome again.

The play by play of my life since 2014 kinda goes like this:
- realising that living w/ my biological mom was bad for my health and wellness
- joining marching band and making some lifelong friends
- finally leaving my mom and going to live with my dad in louisiana (couple states away) at the end of 2017
- depresshun from leaving all my friends
- going to a kickass magnet school that brought me out of depression
- cutting/dying my hair myself and changing my name (to female middle name, but whatever)
- oscillating between am I bi, or a lesbian?
- realising that visual art is fuckin awesome and i actually want to do it as a career
- but also linguistics kicks ass and I want to do that too
- november 2019, finally breaking myself out of my cis denial shell, thought I was nonbinary
- i think by january 2020 I had just accepted being a trans guy, although I was scared as shit
- also got a Questbridge Match Scholarship so I'm going to college with 0 loans, fuck yeah

So, I've got a p bright future! Excited :))

edit: maybe im still 12 because i just noticed this is post #69 :3


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## Stryke

Stryke said:


> I think I've been here long enough that I can put actual stuff here:
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: oh dang its my life
> 
> 
> 
> First, I rejoined another Pokemon community that I hadn't gone on in a while due to being a huge noob while I was there; nowadays, I've made a lot of great friends there, and I don't regret going back at all. Then, I became a freaking teen, which didn't change much of my life tbh.
> 
> After that is a bit hazy, but I do remember becoming the scorekeeper for the 7th grade basketball team after I failed to make the actual team, and I brought my friend on to help me out, which was one of the best decisions I did in my middle school life; the job is pretty fun, I get to just hang with my friend until the game, the coach is just one of the best people I've ever met, and its just really amazing. I still do it today. I also got a really nasty case of insomnia during that time, which sucked.
> 
> Then, I got out of 7th grade,and went to the same summer camp that I had gone to since I was 6. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty neat there though; I made really good friends with people I never would've talked to before, and did stuff that most people don't get to do, which was great.
> 
> Then, 8th grade happened. I became part of my schools newspaper, which was neat. But then, 2 things happened that really made my year suck. First, a lot of relationship drama happened around December that made most of my friends hate me for a week and pretty much broke me because of the stress and emotions. The whole story is really long, so I won't put it here, but needless to say, that was one of the lowest points in my life. The next thing that happened was I started getting all existentialist, and started to wonder about life after death. It really, really scared me, and I couldn't even tell anyone about it cause I didn't want them to experience it too. I've kinda come to terms with it now, but that really wasn't fun either.
> 
> Anyway, fast forward to now, and I made it into Honors Band, I'm planning for High School, and I just asked out my crush today, in fact, so things are, for the most part, pretty good :D


Was gonna make a post in here, but then I realized that oh wait I already did once before. Let's see what I've gone and done since then.



Spoiler: here we go again



-Got accepted into an exclusive STEM program that pulls kids from around the county; I take my math, science, and elective class there for half the day while my other half is spent at my regular high school taking English, social studies, and a second elective.
-Joined marching band and ended up becoming a full on band geek (accepted into highest level band class, county honors band 4 years running, brass band that pulls from around the metro area)
-Joined schools Science Olympiad team, am now on its varsity squad
-Co-founded a Smash Bros tournament with one of my friends at the STEM school which is still running strong
-Started playing Dungeons and Dragons
-Met a good majority of my very close friends through all the above bullet points
-Got into a relationship that lasted me for most of high school; no longer in the relationship for a variety of reasons and have subsequently distanced myself from my ex
-Bought my dad's stickshift station wagon that is as old as I am off of him, which I now drive-- he kept fantastic care of it and it still runs well to this day
-Started working at my local hardware store, and I honestly couldn't think of a better first job, I really love it there.
-Began questioning my sexuality a lot more; I strongly suspect I am bi, but the jury's still out on it
-As of now, I'm prepping for my senior year of high school, as well as looking at college. Not sure where I'm gonna go yet, but I'm looking at music composition as a major; I have strong aspirations of becoming a video game music composer, and I think that will help me further my skills.


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